Cinder's Gift
by milesmorales
Summary: Ruby is having trouble finding a present for her girlfriend.


Ruby stares at the mall directory, barely seeing it. Around her people go to and fro, but she's planted, deep in thought. It's her girlfriend's birthday and Ruby has no idea what to get her. Shopping for friends is easy, she laments, but girlfriends? What is someone supposed to get for those?

Books? She does read a lot. Whenever Ruby goes to see her she's inevitably lounging in bed with a tome propped up against her knees, reading in some foreign tongue Ruby can't understand. Maybe a movie? Or some music! Ruby could get her the new _Achieve Men_ album!

Ruby shakes her head and groans. These ideas are terrible. _The Achieve Men_? They're _good_, or at least she _likes_ them, but as a present it's just... not right. It's your first real relationship, she tells herself. She's gone out on "dates" before. Outings to a movie theater or arcade where feelings were expressed with handholding or maybe a nervous kiss on the cheek. Relationships that lasted a week or a month and were hardly different from being friends.

This, this is different. This is real and it's adult. It's deep kisses on the lips and soft caresses over bare skin. It's watching a movie and missing most of it because they're entwined in each other. It's dates without a chaperone or a parent chauffer or even permission. It's staying out late and not coming home until morning. It's hickies on the neck and fingertip bruises on her thighs.

Ruby takes a deep, shuddering breath to calm her racing heart. They haven't had sex, not yet anyway, Ruby has been too nervous to go that far. Her girlfriend had said she's fine with it, though with a laugh and a smirk that made Ruby feel like a little child voicing a fear of the dark.

She didn't pressure Ruby with words or actions, but simply by being. She is older, and carries herself with the confidence those years allow her. She is beautiful, and all the more so because she knows her beauty. She is the curve in her hips and the swing in her waist. She is her long legs and her measured stride. She is the softness in her lips and the intensity in her eyes. She is woman.

She is fire.

And when they are together, Ruby longs to burn.

But she can't. The child in Ruby makes her afraid, makes her hold back. She's assured it's okay, but she's embarrassed. So today is about taking a step. Today is about being an adult.

She had gathered her money together. Small bills and coins scraped together from savings and chores, the innards of a ceramic boarbatusk that gave its life defending her small wealth from pilfering hands.

Ruby had wanted to go to the mall by herself, but ultimately decided it was best to save her bus money for the gift itself and asked for a ride from her sister instead. A terrifying motorcycle ride later she found herself being dropped off with a promise of a ride back in a couple hours. Now here she was, staring at the placard in front of her and criticizing herself for momentarily wondering if a card and flowers was enough.

Then it hits her: jewelry. Her eyes light up as she searches the directory for jewelers. It's perfect, she thinks. It's a gift given to girlfriends, it's meaningful, it's adult. She quickly finds a jewelers on the map and rushes off, cloak billowing behind her.

She quickly finds out it's not just the perfect gift, but is also an expensive one. Ruby didn't really expect to be able to afford anything covered in gemstones, but who knew gold was _that_ expensive? She sighs and looks in her purse, double checking in case a fairy had miraculously slipped her a few hundred extra lien and ignoring the pitying look from the man behind the counter.

Nope.

Ruby shuffles out morosely, looking for the next jewelers on the list. She passes by an accessory store with a longing look. They have jewelry there, and a lot of it. Pretty, painted earrings and necklaces adorn stands throughout the store. Ruby actually really likes them, and they're inexpensive, but she pushes herself on. They're steel and copper, marketed for children who don't know or care that it's play jewelry.

The jewelry section at the department store is a compromise, but one Ruby can live with. An elderly woman behind the counter helps her sort through the selection and after much discussion and internal debate places a necklace carefully in a box for her. She's polite and smiles a lot, and while many would have turned sour when Ruby dumped a pile of coins and crumpled up bills she instead laughs and patiently counts it out.

Ruby leaves, clutching the bag tight as if it could vanish at any moment and goes to the food court to wait for her sister. She sets the bag on the table in front of her and stares at it as she eats her sandwich and a thousand thoughts and worries roll around in her head. She wonders if she spent too much money or if she should have gotten a pair of earrings as well. She wonders if she should have picked a different piece or maybe the silver instead of the gold. She wonders if jewelry is even appropriate for someone you've been dating less than a year. Mostly she wonders if her girlfriend will like it.

She receives no answers by the time her sister arrives.

Back at her dorm Ruby wraps the box carefully in newspaper and chides herself for not thinking to get any proper wrapping paper. She doesn't even have a bow. Ruby turns over the package in her hands, carefully examining it for tears or wrinkles. At least it was Sunday so she could use the brightly colored comics section instead of dull black and white.

She slips out of her room and out of the dorm heading for the building where the students from Mistral are housed. It's a crowded building. Every door is open with students and noise pouring into the hallways. The normally reserved and orderly second year students are shouting down the corridor to and over each other. Music blasts from speakers and instruments in a dozen rooms, none in synch with any other. Half-dressed boys and girls push their way into and out of the bathrooms at the ends of the hall or lounge about their rooms lazily.

Ruby makes her way through the sea of activity, nervously dropping a "sorry" or "excuse me" every time she had to brush past someone. They mostly just smile or ignore her, though one tall, muscular student without a shirt calls out, asking if someone has lost their kid, making Ruby blush and clutch her present tighter to her chest. Finally she gets to her goal and knocks on the only closed door in the hall.

There's a pause that seems to stretch on forever before the door opens to reveal Emerald's smiling face. The smile flees when the brown skinned girl sees the identity of their visitor and is replaced with a vaguely contemptuous glare. Ruby offers a worried smile as apology and murmurs out a quiet "hi" that is nearly swallowed by the noise in the hall. Emerald had seemed really nice when they first met, but the closer Ruby got to her girlfriend the more hostile Emerald became.

"Cinder, your _girlfriend_ is here," Emerald calls back into the room, stressing the word with bitter sarcasm. A sudden shout down the hallway makes Ruby jump and miss the reply from inside. Emerald hears it fine, however and turns a sour glare to the fifteen year old girl before opening the door and storming out, followed more casually by her tall, gray haired partner. Mercury smiles and waves at Ruby as he leaves. He's friendly enough, but something about him has always made Ruby a little nervous.

She watches them go until she hears a voice call her from inside the room.

"Come in, pet."

Ruby slips into the room and closes the door after, keeping the present hidden behind her back. The room is a lot smaller than the dorms Beacon students get, making bunk beds a necessity rather than just a fun idea. Cinder is lounging on her bed, a large black book lying beside her. She's wearing her school's plaid skirt with black leggings and a dark, blood red blouse with the top several buttons unbuttoned, showing off the pale skin underneath. She stares at Ruby with expectant yellow eyes and a predatory half smile that makes Ruby want to run. Run away from or to her, she can't decide.

Cinder doesn't say anything, she just lies there waiting. It's a game to her, Ruby knows, she's just trying to make Ruby flustered and off balance. She thinks it's cute. Ruby just blushes and looks at the floor and whips the box out from behind her, holding it straight out at Cinder at arm's length. For the first time Ruby sees surprise on Cinder's face.

"What is that?" she asks, eyebrows raised.

"I-it's your birthday present," Ruby stammers back.

Cinder's eyes widen and she stares at the young girl. "How did you know when my birthday was?" she asks.

Ruby laughs nervously. "Well, I may have snooped around and looked it up in your school file and I noticed it was coming up and it's a big birthday... Well, not big, not really. Not too big, I mean. I mean not like you're too old for me or anything, just that it's a big birthday. Stop saying big. Big. Nineteen. Not that big, but, you know... big."

She clamps her lips shut to stop her babbling and hopes she hasn't ruined everything. Cinder just smirks a grin that makes Ruby feel like she's being laughed at and feels the flush burn in her cheeks. She wants to disappear into the floorboards.

"Nineteen," Cinder says quietly, almost as if to herself.

"Yeah." Ruby blinks. "...Is that not right?"

Cinder sighs with a smile and takes the box from Ruby's hand, also taking her wrist and pulling her gently into the bed beside her. Ruby is nervous but tries to act nonchalant being pulled against the older woman. They lie there, shoulder to shoulder, with Ruby trying not to think about how warm Cinder feels or how she can almost see down the woman's shirt. She tries not to think about the sudden tightness in her chest or the butterflies that flutter in her stomach with wild abandon.

Cinder tears the present open with sharp fingernails, not showing the least regard for the wrapping but carefully opens the box inside. Inside is the gift. A necklace plated in the thinnest layer of gold with a large, cheap, red gemstone hanging from it. Cinder snorts and shakes her head slowly. But Ruby only sees the genuine smile that crosses her lips.

"I-is it okay?" Ruby stutters.

Cinder turns to Ruby and cups her cheek in one hand, pulling her close to plant a soft kiss on her lips. Ruby closes her eyes and melts, moaning softly, her heart thumping like it's about to leap out of her chest. After a too short eternity the kiss ends and Cinder pulls away.

"It's perfect, pet" Cinder says quietly.

Ruby grins, relief filling her, melting the tension and nervousness away. Cinder hands Ruby the box and pulls her hair back and up with both hands. Ruby moves onto her knees and removes the necklace from the box, fastening it around her girlfriend's neck. Mission accomplished, Ruby pulls back and Cinder lets her dark hair once again fall free.

"Does it look good?" she purrs.

Ruby wants to say the gold matches the color of her eyes, that the fiery red and yellow remind her of the fire that burns inside her. She wants to say the gem hanging just above her breasts is herself, close to her love's heart. She wants to say how beautiful it is. She wants to say how Cinder's beauty outshines it.

Instead she just swallows nervously and nods, mutely.

Cinder smiles and gives her another soft kiss. Shorter, this time and somehow missing the same intensity of the last. She lies back in the bed, pulling Ruby down with her, resting the girl's head on her shoulder and softly running her fingers through the young girl's hair.

Ruby feels like she missed an opportunity. She wants to go back and try again, to say something, anything to show Cinder what she means to her.

"I'd give you the world if I could," she blurts out suddenly, before the thought had fully formed in her mind. Cinder's hand stops caressing her mid stroke and Ruby worries that she said something wrong. But this time she refuses to stay silent. "I would. I would give you the world if I could," she repeats seriously, not looking up at Cinder's eyes, afraid of compounding her humiliation.

There's a long, silent pause before Ruby feels Cinder shift under her and feels lips pressed against her forehead and hears a quiet whisper.

"I'm sure you will."


End file.
